The pleasure of taste starts with the taste buds and ends with electrical signals reaching the reward centers in the brain. This is not just true of people; it is true of animals as well. All animals have taste buds, including those that live under the water. The catfish, for example, has taste buds virtually all over its skin, earning it the nickname “the swimming tongue.” Flies, spiders, and fruit flies have taste buds on their feet.

Animals taste and enjoy their food as much as we do. Watch a squirrel closely next time you come across one squatting on the lawn holding an acorn with its two hands and nibbling the insides. You’ll see it nibbling away with its teeth quite rapidly. What you don’t see is the tongue inside the mouth that is busy manipulating the little bits of food and tasting the ingredients, swallowing what is delicious and even just acceptable.

Possible Preaching Angles:

Taste and see that the Lord and his Word are good (Psa. 34:8; Psa. 19:10). God invites us to experience him and his Word as a pleasurable experience which feeds our soul.